At the Winter NAMM show, Taylor Guitars announced the release of TaylorSense, a revolutionary new technology that puts the health and vital signs of a Taylor Guitar directly into the owner’s hands.

The TaylorSense smart battery box, which replaces the 9-volt battery box in any acoustic Taylor guitar, houses sensors that monitor the condition of the guitar and communicates via low-energy Bluetooth to the free Taylor Guitars iOS App.

Shaped by the company’s decades of guitar care experience, TaylorSense is calibrated to issue timely alerts and notifications to address some of the most common concerns guitar owners face: humidity and temperature extremes, potentially damaging impact, and their onboard pickup system’s battery life.

“I’ve been making guitars for more than 40 years now,” says Taylor Guitars co-founder Bob Taylor, “and one avoidable thing we’ve seen in our Repair department over that time is damage—damage caused by temperature, humidity and impact. We’ve preached protection, proper care and awareness of the warning signs of imminent guitar damage, and now with TaylorSense, a player will know when their guitar is experiencing distress, and importantly, how to remedy it, through a robust selection of video care tutorials.”

The free Taylor Guitars App presents the data from the TaylorSense smart battery box in a series of easy-to-follow screens, and proactively delivers push notification alerts to the iOS device’s home screen. Each notification includes a link to “how-to-fix” tutorial videos to help the owner provide proper care for their guitars.

“Taylor owners now have the power to monitor their guitars in a way that the industry has never seen before,” says Tim O’Brien, Taylor’s Vice President of Marketing. “As part of our continued commitment to helping owners care for their Taylor guitars, TaylorSense gives real-time insight to prevent and treat common guitar health issues, and provides expert solutions to help owners keep their guitars playing beautifully for generations to come.”

In addition to integrating with TaylorSense, the Taylor Guitars App features a variety of free mobile playing tools, including a tuner, metronome and Sonoma Wireworks’ FourTrack: a songwriting and practice tool for players who want to capture their musical ideas and record songs on their iOS device. FourTrack works with the iPhone’s built-in microphone, headset microphones, or dock-connecting audio interfaces like GuitarJack.

The TaylorSense smart battery box will be available for sale in Q2 2016. Interested players can sign up to learn more about the product, its release date, and other information about TaylorSense by visiting www.taylorsense.com

The Taylor Guitars App, including the suite of free playing and recording tools, will also be available in Q2 2016 for free download from the Apple App Store. For more on the app’s features, visit taylorguitars.com/taylor-mobile-app.